Thematic Areas

Education

Today Pakistan is facing a number of problems like poverty, anxiety, terrorism, sectarianism etc. and the reasons of all these problems are always linked to education.

FACES Pakistan since the very inception of this intervention placed significant emphasis on peace education so that the values of peace, harmony and tolerance could be inculcated in these children.

Pakistan currently hosts more than 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees – still the second largest refugee hosting country in the world. Considering the plight of Afghan Refugee families, FACES Pakistan took the initiative of providing education to the refugee children and in 2009 laid the foundation of “Peace Schools for Afghan Children”. Our four Peace School in Lahore, Sialkot and Gujrat are providing free education to almost 1050 deserving children of Afghan refugees and host communities. This initiative of provision of education to the marginalized and vulnerable refugee children not only enabled them to rebuild their lives but also proved fruitful once they returned to the country of their origin. We are providing education up to primary level to children of Afghan refugees and host communities since 2009. As education can help to achieve better employment opportunities, our adult literacy programme for afghan refugees and host communities is providing education to more than 600 beneficiaries in Lahore.

Health

Thousands of people have received health facilities from FACES Pakistan.

Situation of women is worse in the disaster struck areas of the country where their health gets neglected at every step.

Under the project, Health Education and Enterprise Development (HEED), we have conducted paramedical staff trainings and reproductive health trainings with more than 10,000 local community women and midwives. Awareness sessions have been organized on reproductive health and hygiene for more than 12,000 both men and women. FACES Pakistan has also developed modules for training sessions on different diseases especially those related to reproductive health, women rights with respect to holistic health and proper care for the ailing. To improve the impact of our services for rural communities, we have signed MoUs with health departments of local governments through which we are improving the efficiency and utility of basic women-centric health care services in Rural Heath Centre (RHC). After trainings, the midwives are linked to these centres to provide better guidance and facilities to their patients. We have also provided numerous health care facilities such as medicines and medical camps to more than 6000 victims of natural disasters.

On-going Project(s):

Peace Building and Conflict Resolution

Discrimination against race, colour, political views, gender and religion has threatened peace and security of ordinary people in Pakistan

Such situation demands concrete steps to take action for peace building and conﬂict resolution in Pakistan.

Efforts of FACES Pakistan for interfaith harmony are always appreciated by our friends and supporters. Our recent project on equal citizenship in Pakistan aims to establish religious minorities as equal citizens by promoting human rights, religious tolerance and interfaith harmony among religious leaders, media persons and youth. The project contributes to the implementation of the Supreme Court’s decision of 19th June, 2014 on the rights of citizens from religious minority and thus involves provincial and federal government departments. Another project Engaging Pakistani Interfaith Communities targets youth of educational institutions in Lahore and involves them in promoting religious tolerance through interactive methods like seminars, street theatre and social media.
Under a project on equal citizenship we have mapped 7871 religious like-minded institutions in Pakistan. A major milestone includes signing of ‘Charter of Peace’ by our members of Peace and Harmony Network (PHNP), which was also endorsed by the Former Governor of the Punjab, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar. Through ‘Social Action for Conflict Resolution and Radicalization through Religious Institutions’, we trained and mobilized 480,000 local youth from 36 districts to promote peace and harmony and to integrate value education in curriculum of 2200 religious institutions. Considering the incidents of religious intolerance among children and their engagement with religious extremist groups, now we have a fully equipped van that goes to the improvised mixed religious communities of Lahore and provides value education and basic human rights literacy to more than 1000 children in the city.

Closed Projects:

Social Action for Conflict Resolution and Radicalization through Religious Institutions in 36 Districts of Punjab (2013-2015)

Livelihood

In Pakistan, underprivileged groups such as women and youth always get neglected in getting access to diﬀerent skills, advancing their entrepreneurial prospects and having awareness about their constitutional and basic human rights.

Pakistan believes that better livelihood opportunities can improve the ﬁnancial and social problems in Pakistan.

‘Dard Kush’ a project of FACES Pakistan hopes to strengthen 600 families of Afghan Refugees and Pakistani Host Communities by providing them livelihood opportunities. Our Vocational Training Centre in Lahore provides trades of stitching, beautician, computer skills, carpet weaving and other technical skills and links them to different employers for job placements. We have also provided skill trainings to more than 700 survivors of Gender-based violence in Lahore and other urban areas. In just last 5 years, we have organized workshops for skill development and business management for almost 12,000 rural women in Rahim Yar Khan, Jafarabad, Nowshera, Kashmore and Badin. FACES Pakistan has developed linkages to provide financial support to these women for establishing their businesses and for improving their access to the market. HEED has also established numerous accessible skill development centres, business incubation centres and market linkages for these women in the targeted areas to further enhance their entrepreneurial capacities. HEED Store, a web portal developed by FACES Pakistan, has expanded outreach of female entrepreneurs of HEED by directly connecting them to their customers anywhere in Pakistan.

Youth Leadership & Capability Enhancement

Due to no or limited access to education, employment and personal development opportunities, most youth in Pakistan feel being a burden rather than part of a solution of national challenges.

FACES Pakistan has been working with youth to enhance their capabilities and leadership capacities to introduce them as advocates of peace and productive members of society.

FACES Pakistan has worked with 350 youth from different universities of Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on promoting peace and conflict resolution in the region. This ‘Neighbour for Peace’ project developed their human resource capacities and mobilized them as peace ambassadors in the region. We are also providing trainings on religious tolerance and interfaith harmony to 12,500 youth of different religions. Through Active Citizen Youth project, FACES Pakistan has now developed a volunteer network of 5000 young people. We conducted capacity building trainings and Training of Trainers to encourage these young citizens to participate in social uplift through various activities and workshops. The trained youth initiated different Social Action Projects on their own for various social issues. We have also developed opportunities of social enterprise development for youth of Muzafargarh. To enhance the knowledge and leadership capacities of youth, FACES Pakistan has trained 500,000 youth through Peace Networking Campaigns and Social Awareness and Leadership Trainings (SALT).
As young women from religious minorities in Pakistan are rarely seen progressing to leadership position, FACES Pakistan is exploring the public attitudes and practices towards this issue. To further boost their confidence and create awareness about gender equality, we are imparting SALT trainings to almost 500 young female students from various fields in three districts of Punjab. FACES Pakistan also regularly organizes events to celebrate international days with youth.

On-going Project(s):

Equal Citizenship

Raddi to Rehabilitation

Neighbour for Peace

Fostering Young Minority Women at Leadership Positions in Punjab

Engaging Pakistani Interfaith Communities (EPIC)

Closed Projects:

Building Bridges over Religious and Cultural Divides (2009-2012)

Peace Networking Campaign (2011-2012)

Active Citizen Youth (2011-2013)

Social Action for Conflict Resolution and Radicalization through Religious Institutions in 36 Districts of Punjab (2013-2015)

Volunteerism

Volunteerism is a powerful resource to attract people to uplift social and economic situation of a society.

FACES Pakistan believes that volunteerism has power to bring social change in society.

In collaboration with youth from United Nations Volunteers (UNV), Ministry of Human Rights and Minority Affairs (Government of Punjab) and Aika Foundation, we organized Street Theaters in Lahore, Sahiwal and Multan. The objective of this activity was to create awareness in youth on rights and responsibilities of the local community, volunteerism and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Other than creating opportunities for volunteerism in society, FACES Pakistan has provided consultations to United Nations Volunteers (UNV) for developing a Provincial Volunteer Policy to strengthen volunteerism activities related to peace and development process especially Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Punjab.

On-going Project(s):

Raddi to Rehabilitation

Neighbour for Peace

Closed Projects:

Building Bridges over Religious and Cultural Divides (2009-2012)

Active Citizen Youth (2011-2013)

Engaging VIOs at National Level in Post-2015 Discussions (2015)

Humanitarian Assistance

FACES Pakistan endeavors to rehabilitate victims of natural and other disasters.

We target the areas of multi-religious communities and most vulnerable groups, which are often missed when granting aid.

FACES Pakistan has provided relief goods, medical treatments, shelters, drinking water, sanitation facilities and farming tools to more than 6000 families devastated by floods and earthquakes in Nowshera, Rahim Yar Khan, Kashmore, Jafarabad, Chitral and other regions of Pakistan. To protect local families from floods in future, FACES Pakistan constructed 600 rooms and 5000 shelters for them only in 2010. Moreover, we have distributed 4500 SODIS kits and have trained 10,000 men and women to use them. Right now, FACES Pakistan is the largest distributor of SODIS in the country. As disease outbreak is a major concern in such areas, we have conducted health trainings with 9500 victims in the local communities.
With the launch of Military Operation in 2014 against militants in north-west of Pakistan, temporary migration / relocation of Displaced Persons (DPs) from the area of operations to safer locations started and millions of displaced people took shelter in nearby safer areas. Considering the problems and lack of resources faced by these distressed people, FACES Pakistan extended its humanitarian services in Bannu. We worked on WASH projects with 475 families and provided medicine packages to 1000 displaced families.

Technical Support & Capacity Building

Partnerships are cardinal for successful implementation of social development projects in developing countries like Pakistan.

FACES Pakistan believes in sharing knowledge and takes initiatives to enhance the institutional capacity by introducing effective mechanisms for small CBOs, thus playing its part in creating self-sustaining organizations.

FACES Pakistan has collaborated with Green Acres Associates UK to deliver trainings on professional skills, personnel and technical resources to 5000 small NGOs and CBOs. FACES Pakistan is also a certified franchise of Hill International in Pakistan, providing trainings and guidance on human resource, intercultural, leadership development and management excellence, to organizations wishing to get services from Hill International in Pakistan and in the neighbouring countries.
We have established Peace & Harmony Network Pakistan (PHNP) in 2011 to engage religious leaders from various faiths in dialogues and activities for interfaith harmony in the country. This network is also endorsed by Provincial Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs, Government of Punjab, Mr. Khalil Tahir Sandhu. SANJHA Pakistan – A Coalition for Equal Citizenship, a network of 20 civil society organizations, is dedicated towards working for equal citizenship for religious minorities in Pakistan. FACES Pakistan has been providing support and training to both networks by involving the partner organizations in relevant projects to strengthen and expand their scope of work and technical capacities. FACES Pakistan has also played the very strategic role of providing technical support to the National Commission for Minorities NCM at the federal level followed by support in development of a strategy complementing the 2014 Supreme Court judgment on protection of religious minorities.